Soluna Samay to represent Denmark in Baku

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Posted 21 January, 2012, 22:10

Denmark always throws impressive parties and this year was no exception. The 2012 edition of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix was a spectacular show, showcasing the best of Danish music with 9 extremely talented acts, a great interval act and a special guest appearance by the one and only Alexander Rybak.

However, despite this year's Dansk Melodi Grand Prix being the biggest ever, there could be just one winner and this was Soluna Samay with the song Should've Known Better.

The show started with a quick recap of the past few years entries from Brinck in Moscow to A Friend In London in Düsseldorf and the hosts introduced this year's concept - Namely that Denmark really want to win Europe's favourite TV show this year and that "the winner is waiting backstage".

Three songs went through to the superfinal

After the 9 entries were performed, the Danish jury and public voting for their three favourite entries who progressed to the so called Superfinal, to compete for the big prize. These were Jesper Nohrstedt, Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson and Soluna Samay.

From here the four international juries (from Russia, Norway, Germany and Azerbaijan), Danish jury and public voted on their favourite of the three. This was of course Soluna Samay with Should've Known Better. The votes were split with 50% decided by the juries and 50% by the public.

One thing worth noting is that never before has a song that came into the competition as a wildcard won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. This year all three of the finalists were wildcard entries.

Special performances by acts you may recognise

Not only were there 9 fantastic acts, we also had the pleasure of guest appearances by Norway's Alexander Rybak and A Friend In London who represented Denmark in Düsseldorf last year. But it didn't stop there. Howie D. from boyband Backstreet Boys took to the stage with A Friend In London to sing New Tomorrow with them.

Alexander Rybak took a very different approach to his appearance, performing a medley of Eurovision Song Contest songs, including his own winning entry Fairytale, much to the joy of the audience in the Gigantium arena in Aalborg.

Just after the first round of voting finished there was a performance by the children's MGP group, which was very popular in the arena.

The Results

You already know the results but here they are in a simpler format! Songs in bold denote who progressed the superfinal and the winner is marked in capital letters.

The international juries in the superfinal gave their top points to Jesper Nohrstedt, followed by Soluna Samay and Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson.

The Danish jury chose Soluna Samay as their favourite followed by Jesper Nohrsted and Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson.

Jesper Nohrstedt - Take Our Hearts (Wildcard)

Aya - Best Thing I Got

Kenneth Potempa - Reach For The Sky

Ditte Marie - Overflow

Philip Halloun & Emilia - Baby Love Me

Suriya - Forever I B Young (Wildcard)

Karen Viuff - Universe

SOLUNA SAMAY - SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER (WILDCARD)

Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson - Venter (Wildcard)

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Soluna Samay will represent Denmark in one of the Semi-Finals of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest which is to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on the 22nd, 24th and 26th of May.

Who is Soluna Samay and her team?

For those of you who want to know more about the winner of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, Soluna Samay please find her profile and the profiles of the songwriters behind her song Should've Known Better below.

Soluna Samay’s story belongs in a more special category. Her parents are from Switzerland and Germany but Soluna spent her childhood in Guatemala and her youth on Bornholm. She has however estimated that she has lived a third of her live on the world’s roads in her parents’ campervan. Every summer the family travelled away from home – first from Guatemala and later from Bornholm – In order to play in small and large towns all over the world.

And Soluna is not late in contributing with her own musicality. She learnt to play both the base guitar and drums and she was not more than five years old when she for the first time sat behind a drum kit and beat life into Hank Williams’ Jambalaya. Then it is maybe not so weird that Soluna today describes herself as a genuine street musician. Also, if you are lucky, you can experience her at Amagertorv in Copenhagen, where she often plays.

In 2010, the 21-year-old Soluna exchanged the country roads for the study of music for a while. It resulted in that she in the autumn of 2011 released her first album Sing Out Loud, where amongst others the song Two Seconds Ago was played on radio P4 a lot. The song gave her a place in radio P3s Carrier Hall of Fame.

“Since I was 5 years old I have played on the streets of the world. Now I am really looking forward to standing on the big stage and singing into the living rooms of Denmark”, says Soluna.

With Remee, Chief 1 and Isam B, a few very experienced composers are making a visit to Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Remee has written and co-produced more than 60 hits all over the world and sold over 25 million albums. In addition to an especially varied carrier in Denmark, Remee has written and produced for and worked with artists like Robyn, Blue, Private, Kashmir and many more. Moreover, he has delivered hits to the sound tracks of a wealth of American blockbuster films, including Ice Age 2, Bridget Jones Diary 2, Ratatouille and Madagascar. It was also Remee that wrote and coproduced Hvor små vi er in aid of the victims of the tsunami in 2004. The single went platinum 13 times and raised over 3 million kroner for the victims of the natural catastrophe. In addition, Danes know Remee from X Factor where he sat behind the judges’ table for three seasons from 2008 to 2010. In the first edition of the TV show, he led the then 15-year-old Martin to victory.

Chief 1 is first and foremost known from Denmark’s first rap group, Rockers by Choice, but as a producer and songwriter he has sold over 1 million albums in Denmark and has worked together with names such as Kim Larsen, Outlandish, Niklas, Christina Groth and Ace of Bace. Chief one has participated in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix two times before and has each time given the competition a twist – first with the song Stemmen I mit liv performed by Kølig Kaj who won in 1997. He therefore became the competition’s first ever rapper in Denmark, which led to a number of hate mails from Grand Prix fans who didn’t want change. In 2008 he composed the song La’ mig være – a mixture of pop, punk and rock that was performed by the Faroese band The Dreams who later on went on to have huge success. They were at number 1 in the charts for 6 weeks on DR’s Boogie list, toured in Germany and other countries and are now working with Linkin Park’s manager.

Many will know Isam B as a third of the rap-group Outlandish. A group with loads of hits likeLook Into My Eyes, I Only Ask of God, Aicha and Guantanamo, which all received a lot of attention in Europe. Some believe that Outlandish has created new standards for what can be blended together. Their albums contain a nice mix of hip pop, pop, rap, samples and choirs. As a whole the mixture of genres has been a trademark for Isam B. In 2004, Outlandish made a successful interpretation of the old song Man binder os på mund og hånd and in 2007 Isam B made the solo album Institution which amongst other things contained his lovely interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s I Danmark er jeg født.

“It is a fun and different experience to provide Melodi Grand Prix with something new and fresh. Being especially invited means you can do what you want. With this song we are trying to move Melodi Grand Prix to new heights with a big and beautiful pop song and a different show. The song we have written is definitely not typical of DMGP, it is just a cool song that touches something deep inside us”, says Chief 1, who met Remee for the first time in 1992 when Remee took part in the competition to become the year’s rapper. Chief 1 was a judge at the competition and was quick to invite the talented Remee to join the band Sound of Seduction who later went on to release three albums and amongst other things had a huge hit with the song Welcome To My World before they split up in 1996. It is the first time since Sound of Seduction that Remee and Chief 1 have worked together.